This morning I sat around drinking coffee and planning out my day. I needed to put air in my tires, start a couple of loads at the laundromat, hit the pharmacy, and do some grocery shopping. My weather app says it may snow tomorrow so I’d like to get all weekend activities done today. I was dismayed, however, when I walked out of my apartment only to see the street filled with people, just wall to wall young families.
I walked the few blocks to my car wondering what everyone was doing downtown today. I cleaned it out of accumulated trash and drove the long way, around the downtown area, to Kwik Trip. I wanted to use their window cleaning squeegee thing to clean the inside of my windshield. It was kind of smudgy and the glare from oncoming headlights made it hard to drive at night. I figured I might as well fill the tank while I was at it.
So I cleaned the windshield, filled ‘er up, and drove over to the free air station. There was a woman there putting air in her tires, so I waited. That’s when I noticed another car nearby. Maybe he was waiting, too, and was here before me. When the woman was finally done, sure enough, the other car pulled in to the air spot. I’m not waiting for this. I can come back when there’s nobody here. So I headed back to my place to pick up my laundry.
It was while driving on Main Street, extra slowly so as not to mow down any of aforementioned young families, that I realized the truth: I wasn’t doing any more errands today. No laundry, no stores, none of it. Each of these planned activities required one key element: the ability to park in front of my building. And that, my friends, was clearly not going to happen any time soon. As I drove by my place I noted that there was not a single open parking spot for blocks. I parked my car in the lot and walked home.
That is when I noticed an ice sculpture in front of Sal’s Pizza. It was ice sculpting day, I guess. I think I even heard a chain saw in the distance. Who knew.
Oh well. The best laid plans, etc. I’ll hit the grocery store later on, maybe. When the festivities are over.